10 teams of various nationalities and varied cultural backgrounds from Asian nations including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan, have beat out over 2500 applicants (and even past participants of the original US series) to gain a spot in the race, for an adventure of their lifetime.

The contestants are pairs of: dancing mummies who travel together without their children for the first time since their birth; couples who have known each other from 2 to 13 years; reunited siblings; childhood friends; TV hosts; and the very first hearing-impaired contestant in The Amazing Race history, with his gym buddy who he has known for barely nine months.

BJ is the only one I can think of who has ties to Asia--any one else??

But TV hosts??

« Last Edit: September 28, 2007, 08:46:00 PM by puddin »

Logged

RFF's Golden Rule:Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.

Sign language is our secret weapon S'pore team has show's first hearing-impaired contestant By Jeanmarie Tan

September 28, 2007

THIS is one amazing pair who will make you sit up and listen.

(From far left) Collin Low and Adrian Yap. -- Pictures: JONATHAN CHOO Out of 2,500 applications from all over the region, gym buddies Adrian Yap and Collin Low were the only Singapore team to make it to the cast of the second season of the reality TV series The Amazing Race Asia.

Others on the Emmy-winning international version have suffered from dwarfism and shown off a prosthetic leg, but Adrian, 27, is the first hearing-impaired contestant in The Amazing Race's history.

The business development manager relies on sign language to communicate with his partner Collin, 35, a regional sales director.

They first met nine months ago, at a gym where Collin works as a part-time fitness and pilates instructor.

The athletic duo found similar interests in swimming, marathon running and travelling, and quickly formed a strong friendship.

Adrian is quick to dispel doubts about his deafness affecting him on the show, which has already wrapped filming. It will premiere on AXN (StarHub Channel 19) at the end of theyear.

NOT A BARRIER

He told The New Paper at a press conference at Clarke Quay's Indochine - The Forbidden City last night: 'I want to be a good, living example of how having a disability is not a barrier or problem. I've come so far already and I've covered so many places, so it's not an obstacle.

'It's about managing your mindset, being positive and optimistic, and everybody will love you for that.'

Collin, who learnt sign language 10 years ago and interprets for the hearing-impaired at his church, added: 'We want to prove that... he's able to overcome so many things. We want to make a statement for all disabled people out there.'

When he was 9, Adrian enrolled in a special school for four years and learnt speech therapy and lip-reading, enabling him to attend mainstream schools and the National University of Singapore later.

His story was featured on the Channel U docudrama series My Life Journey. And the Amazing Race Asia is not his first travel adventure.

Last year, he took part in the Clipper Race, an annual yacht race that saw him navigating the seas for three months. He also embarked on a month-long solo expedition to Nepal in the middle of winter.

He and Collin, both jovial underdogs, look set to be fan favourites in the new batch of 10 teams from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan and elsewhere.

Their biggest challenge was driving, which led to communication breakdown, navigational errors and 'moments of tension'. Collin drove and Adrian read maps from the back seat, Adrian could only read Collin's lips from the rear-view mirror and Collin could only sign back to Adrian using one free hand.

You can imagine how much tougher that would have been at night.

But at least sign language has its advantages - they've even proudly called it their 'secret weapon'.

Collin said: 'It's useful when we're in front of other teams or the production crew, or want to discuss strategy and don't want others to know. We also don't need to shout to each other when we're, say, 5m away. We just signaway!'

Sep 27, 2007 The AXN network has just announced it will be producing a second series of the hit reality competition, The Amazing Race Asia. At a press conference in Singapore yesterday the adventure-action channel said two of the 10 teams taking part this year would be from Hong Kong. ...

The good physiques certainly came in handy when the teams travelled to 15 countries in four continents in July, covering 54,000km. Up for grabs is a booty of US$100,000 (S$149,800).

Executive producer Michael McKay said the good-looking cast, selected from 2,500 contestants from the region, was 'absolutely not a deliberate thing'.

He said: 'Personality, not looks, was what we were looking for.'

Referring to the chubby Indonesian brothers from season one, Mardy and Marsio Juwono, he said: 'True, none are interesting-looking people like the M&M brothers, but they are no less interesting.'

Take the Singapore team, made up of gym rats Adrian Yap, 27, and Collin Low, 35.

Low is the first hearing-impaired contestant in The Amazing Race history. Yap, a business development manager, communicates with Low using sign language, which he learnt 10 years ago.

Low, a regional sales director, said: 'It's useful when we want to discuss strategy and don't want others to know.'

Another Singaporean is writer Sophie Teng, 27, although she flies a different flag. She represents team Hong Kong with her ex-flatmate, France-born model Aurelia Chenat, 24.

The two are an unlikely pairing, as they are not exactly bosom buddies, even before the race. The bubbly Chenat still blames the more serious Teng for kicking her out of the apartment when they lived with each other two years ago. However, when Teng's original partner for the competition had to back out at the last minute, she approached Chenat to join her.

Asked if they were still friends after the race, Teng would only say: 'You have to watch the show to find out.'

Our very own TV personalities Rovilson Fernandez and Marc Nelson form one of the two teams from the Philippines. They call themselves Team Rovilson and Marc, or Team Marc and Rovilson, depending on who you’re asking.

Quote

“On the show, we were the clowns whilst being very competitive. We’d like to think that we had a great time. Yes, it was about winning; but at the end of the day, you wanna have a great time. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime. You’re traveling around the world with one of your best friends. Sometimes it was really just about kicking back and enjoying it. Sure we play it up sometimes but when they watch the show, they’ll see Rovilson and I being Rovilson and I. It’s who we are in real life. We are idiots.”

Logged

RFF's Golden Rule:Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.

The Singapore Team, which made up of Adrian Yap and Collin Low, was spotted on The Straits Times Friday, September 28, 2007, page 6 of the Life! section. They were wearing our signature party tanks, showing off their lean and chiseled muscles, all ready for The Amazing Race Asia.

Logged

RFF's Golden Rule:Have RESPECT for each other, regardless of opinion. This of course includes no flaming/insulting other users and/or their posts.

Neobie: That picture of Sophie came from this link from Izad: VIDEO BLOG (well darn--it has been removed by the user--I did wonder because her first line was "as you may know now it is Sophie from Amazing Race Asia 2" --or something like that...)